Wait, it’s a small thing, but I think I have a different understanding of decoupling (even though my understanding is ultimately drawn from the Nerst post that’s linked to in your definitional link); consequently, I’m not 100% sure what you mean when you say a common critique was ‘stop decoupling everything’.
You define the antonym of decoupling as the truism that ‘all causes are connected’. This implies that a common critique was that, too often, EA takes causes that are interconnected, separates them and, as a result, undermines its efforts to make progress.
I can imagine this would be a common critique. However, my definition of the antonym is quite different.
I would describe the antonym of decoupling to be a lack of separating an idea from its possible implications.
For example, a low-decoupler is someone who is weirded out by someone who says, ‘I don’t think we should kill healthy people and harvest their organs, but it is plausible that a survival lottery, where random people are killed and their organs redistributed, could effectively promote longevity and well-being’. A low-decoupler would be like, ‘Whoa mate, I don’t care how much you say you don’t endorse the implications of your logic, the fact you think this way suggests an unhealthy lack of an empathy and I don’t think I can trust you’.
Are you saying that lots of critiques came from that angle? Or are you saying that lots of critiques were of the flavour, ‘Too often, EA takes causes that are interconnected, separates them and, as a result, undermines its efforts to make progress’?
Like I said, it’s a minor thing, but I just wanted to get it clear in my head :)
Your read makes sense! I meant the lumping together of causes, but there was also a good amount of related things about EA being too weird and not reading the room.
Wait, it’s a small thing, but I think I have a different understanding of decoupling (even though my understanding is ultimately drawn from the Nerst post that’s linked to in your definitional link); consequently, I’m not 100% sure what you mean when you say a common critique was ‘stop decoupling everything’.
You define the antonym of decoupling as the truism that ‘all causes are connected’. This implies that a common critique was that, too often, EA takes causes that are interconnected, separates them and, as a result, undermines its efforts to make progress.
I can imagine this would be a common critique. However, my definition of the antonym is quite different.
I would describe the antonym of decoupling to be a lack of separating an idea from its possible implications.
For example, a low-decoupler is someone who is weirded out by someone who says, ‘I don’t think we should kill healthy people and harvest their organs, but it is plausible that a survival lottery, where random people are killed and their organs redistributed, could effectively promote longevity and well-being’. A low-decoupler would be like, ‘Whoa mate, I don’t care how much you say you don’t endorse the implications of your logic, the fact you think this way suggests an unhealthy lack of an empathy and I don’t think I can trust you’.
Are you saying that lots of critiques came from that angle? Or are you saying that lots of critiques were of the flavour, ‘Too often, EA takes causes that are interconnected, separates them and, as a result, undermines its efforts to make progress’?
Like I said, it’s a minor thing, but I just wanted to get it clear in my head :)
Thanks for the post!
Your read makes sense! I meant the lumping together of causes, but there was also a good amount of related things about EA being too weird and not reading the room.
Thanks for the clarification!